After years of telling governors to get the process rolling – and instead getting years of delays and a failed attempt by Governor Christie to shut down the state body charged with the task – the state Supreme Court took control on Tuesday and said judges would decide affordable housing rules for now.

While the unanimous ruling clarified that the courts for the moment are to oversee housing requirements for towns, it did little to clear confusion over the rules themselves. After decades of revisions to the requirements, many municipal officials in North Jersey said they are still uncertain about how to comply with basic provisions of the rules, including how many housing units should be set aside as affordable and what to do with money being held for decades in trust funds established for building affordable housing